Tuesday, 29 January 2013

Sometimes when things are overwhelming it's nice to be able to lose yourself in a good project. Over at the Tando Creative Challenge they want Something Blue. Fantastic. Love blue. My favorite colour. You can't have enough blue. I have used the fantastic Tando layered rowing boat. Been looking forward to doing something with this.

I painted the boat pieces with blue acrylic. I lined the bottom and sides with blue shot silver material. The fenders are made from some fancy wool. I used Pebeo Fantasy Prisme Ash Blue paint for the heart. The oars were coloured with Distress Ink Broken China. The metal charms are from Korthobby and Crafty Individuals.

Sunday, 27 January 2013

Good afternoon blog friends. I hope that you are keeping warm and having a good weekend. Just a little sprinkle of snow on the ground here but it's windy and sleaty outside so I am having a cosy afternoon with a few projects that have I have been thinking about.

Over at the Cheery Lynn Challenge blog they are looking for Sweethearts. Over at Craft Creations it's Love. I started with an idea and ended up with something totally different. Say la doo da. You know we buy all these lovely papers and they get used as background but sometimes there's something that just needs to be the main event. I'm not so good with drawing and colouring. I don't have the copics and promarkers which seem to be in nearly everyones stock and would be unsure how to use them if I had them. I see such lovely images stamped and coloured but that isn't me. Maybe one day. Sometimes you put a couple of elements together and they just ...... fit. Like sweethearts. Like marshmallows and hot chocolate.

There's a shop in Norway called Nille. It's a bit like Woolworths without the music department. They sell householdy things and have a small craft section where they have packs of reasonably priced and very pretty 12 x 12 papers. They aren't branded so I don't know who makes them but I bought a beautiful pack of wedding papers which included this couple of sweethearts.......

I had been playing with Cheery Lynn's Spring Flower Burst Doily with Angel Wing, pink Kaskad card and some pretty patterned paper from Craftworkcards. I was pleased with the contrast on the doily and when I fancy cut the bride and groom they seemed perfect. In fact I decided in this case less is more so the only addition I made was to add some tiny hearts in red to her dress and glossy accent them. The hearts were cut using Cheery Lynn Snowflake #2, the bits you usually throw away! Then I couldn't decide what shape card I wanted my sweethearts to be on. I tried a few and decided it would be fun if they were free-standing. After playing about a bit with the angel wing, a few attempts returned to the bits box for recycling, success. I have cut the card from Pink Hammered Card from Craft Creations.

Here's what the card bit looked like part way through cutting.....

and after cutting.....

I left the front of the card extended to strengthen her dress and cut the back straight down, looks a bit like a tree, to minimise how much shows when the card is standing. I stuck on the doily and couple and did a final trim round her dress.

Isn't that doily die cut fabulous. I thought it looked a bit like an explosion of flowers or fireworks around the happy couple. Making the shaped card was a bit fiddly but I am quite pleased with the final project. It was fun not to be working on a square or a rectangle and nice to have a bit of an extra challenge cutting the custom shape. Now all I need is a wedding........

Friday, 25 January 2013

Hi Blog Friends. It been a few days but my get up and go got up and went. Despite the promising start to the year I was feeling a bit ship without a rudder, fish out of water, Jack without a box, that sort of thing. Now I'm back. The creative jam has been washed down the river and the tide of inspiration is in again. At least for a few hours.

There are undoubtedly a slew of ATC challenges I haven't found but there are two I have. Now when these came up I had to ask what's that stand for? and how big are they? I blame it on the cake. We had just got home from a fourth birthday party and I was pretty much caked up. Luckily a few people took pity on my incapacitated state and enlightened me. Thanks to those helpful few. For the unenlightened ATC is Artist Trading Card and they are 2.5" x 3.5". So here I am, an ATC virgin, embarking on my first attempt. The challenge to these seems to be the size,or lack there of. Most of my ideas were just too big. But they say small is beautiful. Here's hoping.....

The challenge over at Fun with ATC's is Celebration and they are pairing it up with a blog hop because it's their third birthday. Happy Birthday. Also Neet, hello Neet, over at Artful Times is looking for ATC's to do with time. I used Basic Grey paper to cut my ATC. The edges were gently coloured with Distress Ink Salty Ocean. The sentiment is a sticker from K&Company Dollhouse Stickers To Go which I mounted on a piece of card I painted with blue acrylic. The cakes are die cut from Sizzix sizzlit Cupcake and paper pieced. I mounted the front cake on sticky pads. I don't know if there are rules about getting dimensional on an ATC? The paper I used for the frosting is a handmade paper with mica. Glad the sparkles showed on the photo.

Saturday, 19 January 2013

Hello Crafty Friends. It's a cold day here in Norway but the sun has been out and there was blue sky so really quite lovely. Now the sun and the chickens are going to bed and it's -7°C outside so I am going to stay cosy in my recently tidied crafty place. See, New Year and miracles do happen.

A couple of weeks ago The Craft Barn launched a fabulous year long challenge, which I may have already mentioned, and I can see from the number of entries that I wasn't the only one who was excited and inspired by this one. It's called the Alpha Challenge and basically it's a letter from the alphabet every two weeks. Now for the mathematical geniuses amongst you you will be realising that I am posting up to the wire. Again. Actually, that isn't due to lack of planning this time but maybe more a case of too much! As if having to do a project every two weeks for the whole year isn't enough I have decided to make it a little bit more challenging for myself. Having completed the first project my self imposed ideas have actually made it even more fun I think so I shall be eagerly awaiting Izzy's post tomorrow for the next letter and any little twists.

I decided I didn't want to alter a dictionary. Books are special and I would find it dificult to write or paint in one or rip out the pages and it would probably end up in a pile at the end of the challenge! I thought I would scan the words I wanted, but from the first time Izzy mentioned this challenge I had an idea to make an animal alphabet for my great nephew. Then Izzy said about using foreign language dictionaries and I thought wouldn't it be fun to do an English/Norwegian animal alphabet. Yeah, fun but difficult..... Plenty animals in the English but Norwegian often substitutes C with K, V with W, Z with S, doesn't use Q and has three extra letter Æ, Ø and Å (and if you now have a lot of digi squawk on your screen you obviously don't have a Scandinavian keyboard) I was still quite keen on the idea. I was visiting some friends and explained it all. They pitched in and by the end of the evening, coffee and hotdogs a list of animals that start with the same letter in both languages was in my hand. Then Izzy started with 'V'. OK, here it comes......FLAGGERMUS, also known as BAT. To qualify for V we had to get a bit more specific and use our blood sucking friend the vampire bat.......

The format was another detail requiring much thought. The book was out of the question. I did contemplate a whole alphabet of 17cm high paper mache letters but the idea of having to file them in a large box was a sobering thought. Inchies? too small. Old CD's? too round........ As I said too much thinking. So I have settled on a 15cm x 15cm format using printed cardstock. This allows me to cut 4 pages out of a 30 x 30 sheet and I don't have to worry about the back if I decide to have them as a book later cos it's double sided cardstock. Sneaky eh?

So here is 'V is for vampire bat/vampyrflaggermus' The My Minds Eye card has this lovely red hatching on it. I have used Tando Creative Haunted House mask and stencilled the bats with Walnut Stain Distress Ink. The big V little v have been cut using Ida Lou's Flowerbox alphabet dies from Sizzix. The bat was stamped and coloured with distress inks and then I used glossy accents. The words were computer generated with the help og Wikipedia and Dictionary.com and some doodling. The 'blood' is a mix of various paints splattered on with a toothbrush.

I would like to thank Mark, Elin and Henriette for the help with the list and my man for advice on blood splatter techniques and for having even more paint than me.

Thursday, 17 January 2013

Hi Nomad friends. Here we are again and I am a little bit excited because I have decided to join in with Tim Holtz's 12 Tags of 2013. Now this is a very long standing challenge Tim has been running but this is the very first time I have tried to join in. I wasn't exactly sure how close we were supposed to follow Tim's methods but decided it was a guide for inspiration and tips. Self expression definitely desired. I must admit I was very impressed with a few of the things Tim showed us and they have been included in my tag with a personal twist. I didn't have all the materials that Tim used so there is some improvisation along the way but I am rather pleased with the result. So, here it is, my January 2013 Tag......

I cut my tag using Sizzix Framelit Die - Frame Ironwork. This gives a point at both ends so I cut the bottom off and put it to one side cos I had an idea. I embossed the tag with the cogs from the Texture Trades Artful Muse set. I also embossed Umbrella Man from this set onto a separate piece of card, cut him out and coloured him with Distress Ink Shabby Shutters. The embossed cogs were coloured with Walnut Stain and some Barn Door on the unembossed bits. I cut a small cog from My Minds Eye card using Gadget Gears. OK, I really liked the way Tim had stamped the pointing hand on a tag and offset it on his tag but I didn't have that stamp. I found "Never a Dull Moment" from Unity Stamp Company's September 2012 SMAK Kit. I thought it would work and then I noticed that it was a good shape for Umbrella Man's umbrella, except his umbrella was a bit small. So I stamped it on a piece of card in Distress Pine Needles and cut it out, a bit of freehand embossing and mounted on sticky pads and there's Umbrella Man with XL rain protection.

I also liked the film strip Tim had but don't have anything like that. I did think about cutting up some old negatives but it's all digital now and the old photo's are packed away in the attic. So I made a film strip!! I used movers and shapers square window panes to cut some black card. I was a bit stuck with the sprockets but have been playing with some new Cheery Lynn dies and had kept the offcuts. Is that a bit sad? Probably, but not today cos it saved my bacon!! Cheery Lynn Snowflake #2 gave these lovely little hearts as waste so I lined them up. I backed the film strip with acetate and then covered the card parts with glossy accents to make it glossy, but also to protect all those little hearts. The metal piece is Steampunk with Dragonfly in copper from Korthobby.no. How gorgeous is that??

I loved how Tim made his ribbon tie but I only had satin ribbon so I tore some neutral cotton fabric, coloured it with Whispers Mossy Stone and stamped it with Jan 2013. Then I took the small piece I had cut from the tag at the very beginning, embossed with Sizzix Bingo folder and returned it to the top of the tag.

Wow, did I do all that!! Hope it's not too long winded. I am sure you will skip it if it is.

Wednesday, 16 January 2013

Hi Nomad friends. This week I realised that I have been hiding in the desert for too long. I must out and make myself known. Twice this week I have been addressed as Iona. Now, I think that's a great name. I have no problems with that but it did make me realise that my profile is verging on the non-existant. I am going to own up and stand tall. Check it out. Maybe I'll go wild and include a photo.

OK, so a while ago Von over at Artful Times challenged us to use at least two embossing folders. Now I was all excited cos I love embossing folders. They are my friends and make me look good. That said, it was the New Year and I was all excited about a lot of things so I am only just answering the call. Hi Von.......

I made a pair of tags. I am so pleased with my new embossing folder Spellbinders M-Bossibilities Sea Beauty. I used both sides. I embossed some white card then used Sizzix Framelit Die Frame Ironwork to cut my tags. This is pointed both ends so I cut the bottom square. Then I fussy cut the shell shapes and die cut the seahorses with Sizzix original die. I coloured with Distress Inks - Broken China, Pine Needles, Shabby Shutters and with Brilliance Dew Drop Rocket Red. Brum brum. The weeds in the background are Sizzix Flowers and Vines #3 which I embossed with Sizzix embossing folder Regal Flourishes and coloured with Shabby Shutters. On the seahorse tag the RHS shell and the front seahorse are mounted on sticky pads. The LHS shell on the second tag is also on sticky pads. I was working on fish but couldn't find any that seemed to fit and then whilst looking through Crafty Individuals background book Seaside I found this perfect quote. Happy dance. I finished the tags with a clump of wool, embroidery thread and gold thread which I thought looked kind of like seaweed rising through the water. Too much poetic blurb?

I have doubled checked my spellings but please forgive any errors. My new computer and I aren't quite seeing eye 2 eye. I hit the keys but the letters don't always come up, or I get doubles. I think the mouse pad is more sensitive as well cos occassionally I end up typing half way up the page so maybe I am brushing against it accidentally. Or maybe the machines are trying to take over the world.

Take care friends. Off to add a bit to my profile. Maybe at least a name. Don't want to get too carried away.

Saturday, 12 January 2013

Good evening blog friends. Just a quick post for a card inspired by Cheery Lynn Designs Challenge Blog where the challenge is Winter Whites. So I pulled out a selection of white card and paper and discovered that it's all relative. There are many shades of white. I decided winter white was bright white and shades into the blue, although it's a challenge in itself to get a white photograph of a white project!!! Here goes.......

I embossed some white card with Spellbinders M-Bossibilities Sea Beauty. The flourish and the flowers are Sizzix flowers and vines #3. The image is Cornish Heritage Farms Sweet One Collage stamped in pale blue. I added a snowflake brad in white and a pearl button to each flower. The butterflies are from Cheery Lynn mini dimensional butterflies, my most favourite die of the moment. Love the detail and the variety of these little guys, or maybe gals!!

Thursday, 10 January 2013

Hello lovely people. I hope the fat, happy man brought you all you wanted for Christmas. For those of you wondering if you have stepped into a time warp, DON'T PANIC!!! There are still a few Christmas themed challenges either running over from before the silly season or still being offered by the die hard Christmas fans. Who am I to argue? I have just discovered Joanna Sheen's website and challenge. From the number of followers and entries she is obviously known to many, but it was a pleasant find for me. I don't get out much you know. Well, now you know. So the challenge is "With Love at Christmas" and since Santa obviously comes with love, as well as presents, I thought I would offer up this card which I think fits the theme.

The red paper was some preprinted and embossed scrapbook paper which I cut and arranged on a green card. The Santa was cut using Sizzix original Santa Head and paper pieced. I used mini pompoms with tinsel for his bobble. Nice simple jolly card. Just what you need when time is short. I am entering this card for Joanna Sheen Challenge - With Love at ChristmasHope you all have a good evening. Thanks for dropping by.

PS. This card was picked to feature in the Joanna Sheen daily talent spot. What a lovely surprise and many thanks. Check out the Joanna Sheen Blog and Joanna Sheen website, which offers free worldwide shipping. Very useful for those of us in foreign parts.

Monday, 7 January 2013

Hi blogfriends. Well it's late here, or maybe that's early but the crafting bliz has me firmly in it's grasp so I thought I'd share a little something with you all. I've been having fun using some of my favourite things and have come up with a tag. A little bird told me, you're going to have a party, gonna to be a bit crazy, the little bird told me.

I made a tag. I had three challenges in mind when working on this. The Craft Room wanted a tag, at Simon Says anything goes related to The Mad Hatter's Tea Party and Crafty Mess want us to show some sparkle or bling. I made a round tag by cutting a piece of Kaiser scrapbook paper with Sizzix Framelits round dies.

I used the Magic Roundabout mask from Crafty Individuals and Walnut Stain Distress ink. Iridescent glitter glue to highlight the birds with a small black round sticker for the eyes.

The White Rabbit and I are always late so I wanted a time reference and this clock cardstock sticker from Kelly Panacci fitted perfectly. The bunny is Sizzix Stuffed Bunny die cut and pieced and the phrase is from Craft Creations Wren in Mayblossom decoupage sheet. This was something I got out earlier that was destined for another project but it seemed to fit right in here so..........

We like bunnies. OK, it's not a White Rabbit. Maybe it's his cousin from the old country coming to visit. Hope he's in time for the party.....

Sunday, 6 January 2013

Oh, my mind is a bliz with ideas and inspiration. So many things buzzing I can't settle to one project and am afraid tomorrow they will have fled and I will look at the 50 things I took out today and ask "What dat den?!" I am blaming it mostly on The Craft Barn and partly on Tim Holtz. Now before anyone gets upset let me just say The Craft Barn is one of my most favouritist places to shop and they are just so nice and helpful but they have just set this mind blowing challenge, well OK it blew my mind, that is going to run for the whole year. Now how ambitious is that? Check it out HERE. I have also decided to have a go at Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2013. Another one that runs all year! This will be the first time I have joined Tim's long established tag fest. The tags that he uses to inspire and those submitted to the challenge are WOW so I was a bit unsure, but this afternoon an idea or two have avalanched into the tiny brain cell in charge of crafting so I'm going for it. All this when I was supposed to be sorting out an entry for the CASology challenge which closes soon. No, I mean really soon! How can you CAS when the brain is full of tags and dictionaries and things that go bump in the dark?? A deep breath and say onomatopoeia, twice for luck.

So the challenge at CASology is New. I have gone with a baby card. You can never have enough baby cards. People seem to suddenly turn up with a new baby and there is never a card on hand. Or it's a boy and the cards are pink, or, yes you guessed, it's a girl and the card is an aeroplane because you were convinced he was going to take after the father and be a bird fancier one day. So I went green to cover all bets. I embossed my card with Sizzix Woodgrain embosssing folder and then coloured my white space green with Shabby Shutters and Pine Needles Distress and Memento's London Fog. The owl, cute or what? is Leane Creatief Owlies #1 decoupage. I haven't used all the layers, in deference to CAS, and also cos I was happy with it just the way it is. Hopefully this will be perfect for the next baby that comes along, or if not I can enjoy it myself, cos that owl is just so cute.

Saturday, 5 January 2013

Well hello everyone. Hoping that your Christmas and New Year went perfectly. Well here I am with my first post of the New Year. It's been a bit hectic so I haven't had much time to craft but I really am hoping that I will be super inspired to try new things, stretch myself and be more focused. I sometimes joke that my middle initial stands for procrastination. I am excellent at starting things but often leave the finishing until tomorrow. And as you know, tomorrow never comes. Despite this things get done, maybe a bit last minute, but it's the end result that counts isn't it. Hopefully my end results are good and getting better.

Anyway, a new year and challenges all over the place. Fun, fun, fun. Cheery Lynn's weekly challenge is Friends/Friendship.

I used a sheet from Dovecraft's Eastern Promise paper and embossed it using Born to Shop Green Goddess embossing folder. Then out with the Pine Needles and Shabby Shutters Distress Inks. I wanted to use my Cheery Lynn Mini Dimensional Butterflies Die (I love this fantastic die) so I thought about friends and butterflies and came up with a phrase I liked. I didn't have an appropriate stamp or sticker so I have doodled. Then I cut lots of butterflies from an old calendar and proved my saying had a tinsy little flaw. Although I am firmly convinced you can't have too many friends I do think I maybe went a bit mad with the butterflies so I have a few left over for another project. Excellent. Also thinking about it you can have too many Cabbage White Butterflies. Especially when their little caterpillars start munching on my cabbages. Oh, sorry, got a bit distracted there. I wanted a narrow border and was a bit stuck until I found these stripy pipe-cleaners in my stash. After I had glued them down I realised I could have had a go at more doodles but I do like the extra dimension the pipe-cleaners give.